7 murders on the infant ward Convicted baby killer Letby fails with her appeal

British baby killer Lucy Letby has failed in an appeal against her conviction in a further case of attempted murder of an infant. An appeals court on Thursday rejected a request by her lawyer to be allowed to challenge the guilty verdict from July.

Letby was video-linked in from prison during the hearing and showed no emotion as the judges announced their decision.

Letby is already serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others. The trial was reopened in a case of attempted murder after other jurors were unable to reach an agreement in the previous trial.

In the new trial, the jury then deemed it proven in July that the 34-year-old had removed a breathing tube from a premature baby in February 2016. Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams explained at the time that a doctor had caught Letby standing idly by while the child struggled to breathe.

Lawyer criticized "bias"

Letby's lawyer argued that the retrial in July should not have happened at all because it was overshadowed by "overwhelming and unalterable bias" from the coverage of her first trial in 2023.

Letby used to work as a nurse on the infant ward of a clinic in Chester. She has denied the allegations and stated that she never harmed a child. However, in August 2023, a court in Manchester found her guilty of most of the crimes she is accused of. The murders and attempted murders took place between June 2015 and June 2016 on the infant ward of the Countess of Chester Hospital in the north-west of England.

dpa